DeSantis said no one questioned slavery before Americans. See Van Jones react 

He just gave an excellent example of why the history of slavery should be taught, he knows nothing about it..

In 1st grade we were first taught about slavery, the civil rights era and MLK. We all took it very well. There's no reason to hide history from children.

Great point Van. “You know who questioned slavery, the enslaved people, the whole time”.

The comments by De Santis on history show just WHY ALL history needs to be taught. People need to understand what happened and why!

It’s a shame this country isn’t mature enough to face it’s own history.

No one has twisted history so badly since Donnie!

He said what he said. He didn’t count slaves questioning it , because to him and many others, slaves didn’t count

I am an American Black Woman and I'm Proud to be. I celebrate every month of the year. Being Black was not by choice it is my inherited schwag gift, it’s the skin I was born in. Being a 59-year-old black woman to me means I must bestow astounding plaudits on my African ancestors and preserve the footprints of their heavily laid tracts of tears, sweat, and blood embedded deep into the soil of this country. For they were dragged to America as purchased commodities to cultivate the land, owned by the rulers of England who had collaborated with the rulers of Spain to import and export goods to their newly stolen land. I am an American Black Woman and I'm Proud to be. I celebrate every month of the year. Being Black was not by choice it is my inherited schwag gift, it’s the skin I was born in. That lowly depiction and detracting stigmata on blackness given to me by our oppressor; as he beat me teaching me to hush and stay in my place. I’ve learned to ascend high above the heights, to wear those bedevil scars and my blackness with pride. I am an American Black Woman and I'm Proud to be. I celebrate every month of the year. Being born Black is a schwag gift where you have no right to choose, unlike those who were given the choice to be or not to be a parent. I Am A Woman 2... A Whole Woman! I am an American Black Woman and I'm Proud to be. I celebrate every month of the year. Being black was not a choice given to me unlike those who consciously decided to be Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, or Queer. I am an American Black Woman and I'm Proud to be. I celebrate every month of the year. Nor is being born black like pledging or swearing an oath when joining a club, political party, or gang. Nor is being Black a Religion that one chooses to part take in. I am an American Black Woman and I'm Proud to be. I celebrate every month of the year. Neither was Black History Month constructed for the Native American Indians; the rightful owners of the land. Neither was Black History Month constructed for those asylum seekers from Mexico, Asia, and Europe who CHOSE to come to America by any means necessary to seek better jobs, housing, and higher education. I'm an American Black Woman and I'm Proud to be. I celebrate every month of the year. But as I roister in my celebration of Black History Month, I can’t help but wonder if the last-to-be-hired vine workers' great migration to this land and the adding of these muddle attachments that have nothing to do with being black nor black history to me they are of the devil’s devise! Devise concorded to detract my ancestors’ tracts (that are full of ambrosia treasures) so that strangers and the last to be hired vine workers may be dripped with my black children, children’s children's fatness from my ancestor harvest. Well, I rebuke you Devils in the name of Jesus! No longer will I be your beast of burden! No longer will you continue to place every crumb-snatching vine worker's burden on my back. As of today, I lay down those burdens that are not mine to carry. And I laid down my bellicose sword and quit adjudicated in their honor. My relentless fighting and marching in the street protesting their causes is over... As of today I only adjudicate when those who look like me honor and civil rights are being denied. And I only raised my bellicose sword to protect me and mine! The others must work for their own harvest; lead protests for their own causes; and fight their own fights. For God's vouchsafe to me and my ancestors “those strange vine workers and crumbs snatchers shall not reap my harvest and if I steadfast I shall crown my latter year with thy goodness, and my pathways shall be dripped with Thy fatness for my Black Children’s children children's!” Salam and Amen I’ll be Lagom… resting in God’s promise. I'm Black and I'm Proud to be Black. I celebrate being Black every month of the year. There is a paradigm-shifting, shining a scintillated light into greed and hate's darkest places, surrogating justice where the injustice of radical ideologists lurks... Mrs. Cynthia Butler Jackson © I Am A Woman 2... A Whole Woman

I grew up in a household where racial bias was a constant diatribe. Fortunately, I heard a different point of view in school. Even as a young child, I felt that bigotry was wrong no matter what my parents said. Children aren't stupid, but when they only hear one viewpoint, they question their own inner voice. If real history isn't taught, history will be repeated, unfortunately.

DeSantis talking about history is proof Florida needs a better education system to teach *actual* history. 😂

Imagine being so ashamed of real history that you actually threaten teachers with arrest

History in school is a very important subject. People need to know history So people don't repeat the bad history

Even if he meant to say that no white people had opposed slavery until Americans did, he's still wrong! All kinds of white Frenchmen were writing about the brutality of slavery long before America became an independent country.

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it!

We know who missed their history class

Everyone who participated in or were subjected to slavery have always called it into question. Other countries have fought long & hard to break the stigmas & move pass the legacy of slavery. America is still in denial about this & many other social injustices.

That white guy really managed to ignore the question back to back in the difference between talking about gender and talking about _American history_

He is the embodiment of 'Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt '.

"Those who fail to remember the past are often condemned to repeat it."

That's not true!!! The slaves did not want to be slaves and the United Kingdom did question slavery before America as well. Do your research.

Children are never too young to be bullied by other children. That is why these conversations should be discussed when they come up instead of pushed under a rug and ignored.

In 4th grade we had a member of the school staff enter our classroom for maybe 1 hour and explain her family’s experience with the Japanese confinement in America. That was the first and probably only time I heard about it throughout public school. I found it very enlightening and it opened my world view. But it only happened once and I was not only able to handle it but I believe I greatly benefited from it. To be told children today need to be sheltered from our real history, especially now that they have the internet at their fingertips with access to even more information than I ever did as a child, does not sound right to me.

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.---James Baldwin

I need ALL my descendants of slave to VOTE when it’s time! This is just utterly unacceptable and disgusting. We HAVE to teach history good bad or indifferent so we DONT repeat it!

I learned about civil rights at home and through my 2ND GRADE TEACHER when she showed the film “The Story of Miss Jane Pittman”. This altered my life for the better in so many ways. Students need to be taught the TRUE history of this country and the world. I didn’t suffer from some imagined GUILT. SMDH

Imagine being so ashamed of your history, that you ban teaching it to your children...

“Nobody questioned slavery?!?!?!” This is a governor! Florida, COME ON!

WOW, DeSantis is completely ignorant of history.

HE'S THE EPITOME OF WHY THE PAST SHOULD BE KNOWN

I thought Republicans are supposed to be against censorship and pro 1st amendment. How can they be banning all those books 😂

I remember when I was in 6th grade, I was humiliated by a teacher, so when I went home for lunch l wrote a letter after telling my mother about the incident. She couldn't speak or write English, but she was disturbed by my humiliation, she signed it with her name. When I handed the teacher the letter and read it she grabbed me by the neck and called me a liar and took me to the principles office. She said it was obvious I had written the letter, but the principal said quietly....Many of theses parents are not fluent in English but they care about their children just the same....I've never regretted writing the letter for mother.

This is an example of the alternative facts, fake history, bs Florida wants to teach. Instead of the truth! 😂😂😂

I can't wait to vote DeSantis out! I can't stand to hear him speak. I hope that my fellow Floridians vote blue.

Isn't banning books the same as banning freedom of speech? Words are words whether spoken or written.

"Nobody questioned it" 🤦🏾‍♀️ Nobody!!? He meant nobody that he thinks mattered. 😠

Ron, in 15th century, we asians questioned slavery here in southeast asia when Spaniards led by Magellan landed in Philippines. Our tribal leader Lapu-lapu killed Magellan. We killed the invader in our land. Not just question slavery. Let kids read their history.

As a German I can say it's very hard to learn and see what the Generation of your grandparents was able to during WWII, but it was also important tagt you understand what can happen to a society. You learn best from your mistakes.

As an elementary school student, and one of only 5 or 6 black students in my entire school in the 1960s, learning only that my ancestors were enslaved, then freed; followed by the Civil Rights movement left me upset and confused. I thought "there must be more to black history." In high school, at a private lecture I learned about the Royal Dynasties of Africa (In Egypt, Kush and Nubia.) That gave me a totally different feeling about myself. It gave me a sense of self worth and value. DeSantis in his ignorant statement that no one cared is ignoring how all non-white students feel about themselves and events that still effect how we are judged to this day. If we learned more about the value of the various cultures that make up America, children might grow up having more self respect and respect for others who have a different experience in this country due to discrimination.

"What's dangerous is, when you don't let kids talk about the world around them, you give them no prompt and no cues" this hit home. Parents, don't shield your kids from the world, please

History is not something to agree or disagree with, it is just history!

I don't really know everything being taught in schools right now, my daughter, who's an adult now had told me it changed so much since I was in school. I remember history being an important part of it. You can't change it by just ignoring or not talking about it!

"When I hear someone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong inclination to see it tried on them personally" Abe Lincoln

The problem is this. People can say they don't want elementary school students to learn America's history on racism. But many African American kids don't get the opportunity to avoid racism simply because they're 8 years old. It's an insult of intelligence and complete lack of empathy for what black kids in America experience. And a hindrance of understanding why they experience, what they experience.

"Those that can make you beileve absurdities ,can make you commit atrocities"

Shameful DeSantis is not as well spoken as his education would warrant. 😂

Folks are afraid of hurting a childs feelings but fail to remember children lived through the trauma. Now those children are grown and are silenced from telling the history.

Scott Jennings, I’ve been an educator for 24 years and I assure you young children are NOT being taught sexuality. We are all struggling to educate children, meet their needs and deal with the vitriol and hate and misinformation.

Ignorance appears to be not only bliss, but also a dangerous weapon against democracy.

This is what happens when you start banning books

"It's amazing to me how much you can say when you don't know what you're talking about" - The wise Phoebe Bridgers

being ignorant and confident at the same time is a deadly combination. I mean literally…… Desantis has no clue what he’s talking about……

Wow. It seems like nothing in history ever took place before America. However did the human race managed to survive?

Let's give a round of applause to Jennings, who did an amazing job of saying absolutely nothing while giving an impersonation of someone answering a question.

Someone once said to me that only in the US did people fight and die to end slavery. I pointed out that most developed countries ended slavery around the time the US did, but the reason there wasn’t any fighting was because there weren’t millions of people in those other countries willing to kill and die to keep slaves.

DeSantis is just factually wrong. He needs to take some world history lessons.

In1834, Britain passed the Slavery Abolition Act, which prohibited ownership, purchase and sale of humans as property throughout its colonies.

Tonight: Ron DeSantis just makes stuff up, expects to get away with it because he doesn't allow kids to get taught facts in school

I would never want to raise my children in Florida. I grew up there, and the educational systems (as well as other governmental services) are very poorly funded.

I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for him to do better.

Bizarre, Great Britain passed an act in 1834 banning slavery……DeSantis needs some history classes.

"At some point Republicans decided that making the country like the town in the movie Footloose was a political winner" - 🤣🤣🤣

What about the slaves themselves questioning it

I'm 66 and I attended a catholic school. We learned about slavery, as a core subject, in 3rd grade. We were also taught critical thinking. We were all better for it. And kinder.

He needs to educate himself. He is profoundly ignorant. The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about. Wayne Dyer

The saddest part is that many who watched DeSantis say these things, are actually going to believe him.

As a parent, I want my children to know the truth. The actual historical information. My husband and I have taught our children to be critical thinkers. They want the truth.

I'm from a former British colony and abolitionists in the UK were starting to question slavery from late 1700s. That why we got emancipation way before America and there wasn't a civil war about it lmao. Trust me, the American Revolution wasn't as big of a factor in ending slavery for other colonies. America was quite comfortable with slavery till the mid 1800s especially with the cotton Gin. If it wasn't for the events leading up to the civil war and the war itself, America would have abolish slavery way later. So idk what this man is talking about.

French philosophers questioned slavery before the US was even a thing. Chinese philosophers questioned slavery in the third century BC.

As a high school English teacher I taught a lot of novels, stories and poetry from history, civil rights and the Harlem Renaissance. Student engagement was high during these units. Student writing was thoughtful, emotional and solution oriented. I never in all my years had anyone internalize the blame for slavery. Students are separated by time from the barbaric acts of their ancestors. They get that we learn about the past so we do not lose ground with the process we’ve made.

Kids aren't stupid, Ron. My mother tried to instill to us homophobia, Islamophobia and all sorts of bigotry. This just made me more open minded and question long standing beliefs in my community

He just explained why CRT is needed and didn't know it😂

Speechless on how confident he is in his BS rebuttal.

Not only is DeSantis nuts, he's dangerous.

DeSantis has a very uninformed knowledge of history. Maybe he wants to make everyone as ignorant as he is.

England banned slavery in 1833. The States abolished it about thirty years later basically on the back of the British Abolitionist movement which was sponsored mainly by Quakers in England and with Prince Albert (Victoria’s husband) as a leader of the movement as well.

"When a free man dies, he loses the pleasure of life. A slave loses his pain. Death is the only freedom a slave knows. That's why he's not afraid of it. That's why we'll win." - Spartecus, 71 B.C.E.

I think the British might have something to say about WHO outlawed slavery . Edit - Before the American Civil War ,British law had already decreed that any slave who sets foot on British soil is instantly a free man.

It is no more 'sexualized' to talk about a man having a husband than it is to say a woman has a husband - unless you make it about sexuality rather than relationships.

You know what is so weird to hear from Desantis, talking about slavery. Is that he would definitely have been a Slave owner, and would have defended his rights to own slaves with an insane argument. Desantis is one of the most despicable and horrible human to have ever lived in America.

"No one questioned slavery" ? I'm pretty sure that SLAVES questioned slavery like from the jump! I guess they don't count, right Ronny?

As a parent of 6, grandparent to twelve then add my own years, I know schools. I am exposed to the educational curriculum from California, Nevada, Oregon & Tennessee (I help do hmwk on the phone) ‘The parents’ weren’t worried until they were ‘told’ to worry. The lack of education is the true worry.

We HAVE to vote him out Nov 8th! I do not want my kid to be taught falsehoods and lies in school. Vote 💙💙💙💙

I unfortunately live in Florida. Desantis is such an embarrassment.

"Black" should be capitalized but "White" should not? How about "Brown", "Yellow", "Red", etc.?

What should be questioned more often is the decency of American politicians and its constituency

I wonder how many parents were concerned about the curriculum before desantis and his ilk told them to be. They've lied about so much to get parents scared and teachers to leave the system so that they can have their charter schools and then they can teach kids whose parents can afford private school. This scares the crap out of me.

I was taught about WW2 and the horrors of the Holocaust at the age of 8. This at school by a teacher who lived the war, luckily in Switzerland.

There were always a lot of unenslaved people speaking out against slavery too

Hm. I was in HS from 74 to 77. We talked about slavery, Women's rights, Civil rights, Gay rights, the war going on at the time. It was not "recent:" information, but it was part of the lessons.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CRYPTO AND FOREX

The Truth Hurts! ALOT!!!

Van Jones is a genuinely good man, he did his best to be as constructive as possible in his criticism when he could have rightfully ripped Desantis to shreds.

History called; it thinks DeSantis should read books for once instead of banning them.

It’s never too young to teach children that racism is bad.

What a disgrace to all Americans Ron is . Does he realize he is creating a deeper divide in this country??

Van Jones' facial expression, while Jenning was talking, is everything.

Ron DeSantis needs to stay relevant until 2024 ,so he is going to keep up these stunts for two years. Hold on to your hats folks. Barnum and Bailey is back in town.

Jennings thinks the worst thing about that teacher's behavior was that it wasn't done in private. His ability to ignore reality would be stunning if it wasn't exactly what the extreme right values most. The issue with that teacher was that he doesn't respect an individual's right to self-expression and he's a bully. Bullying in private is just as bad, if not worse, than in public where at least someone recorded it.

That Florida Governor lacks basic knowledge and understanding.

One of my daughters brought home a book from the library that I was uncomfortable. I didn't rage. I asked her what made her pick that book then I sped-read it. Then I talked to my daughters. I parented them. I did not expect teachers or librarians to do that. I did it.